I want to do a version of the bicylist’s RAAM (race across america). Thinking of formats, such as riding the best muni trails in a line from Florida to Washington; or maybe 50 days, 50 states, 50 miles/state; or something like that. Can you send me your best trails by state? Or a series of trails that add up to 50 miles in your state that would be the best? For example, in Colorado I’d pick Hall Ranch (10 miles) and then add Button Rock Mtn (10 miles) and so on up to 50.
In Nevada and probably other parts of the west, you could probably take dirt roads and trails all the way across the state…
If you just wanted to do some muni in each state, then in Nevada you’d probably want to check out either the Lake Tahoe area (A lot of which is actually in California), the Ruby Mountains in Eastern Nevada, or some of the stuff down by Vegas… (never ridden down there but I’ve heard of lots of MB Trails)… Trying to do some in each region would probably be pretty hard cuz Nevada is so big…
Keld
for colorado youd want to go up dirtbike trails such as trails up in west cliff or texas creek or go on the rainbow trail or go on independance pass wich is a rock crawling trail with drops up to like 8 feet…it would be more of a trials trail though but it would be good for muni too…
aspen mike would probably know of a few more trails too…
in illinois you gotta hit up independence park, I’ll ride with ya’. 
Thanks. I’m actually thinking of getting the 50 miles of the “best” technical trails in one state, then travelling to the next state for the “best” of that state, and so on. I qualify best as most technically interesting singletrack with trials and stuff on granite on them. Thus I need to find out what is considered the most excellent and exhilerating trails. If I could get a year (or 2) I would find a way to connect them continuously, but I only have a summer. Since I’m talking technical muni, even doing 50 miles in one day is probably pushing it, but as I work out the format I might have to do the best 20 mile hard technical single track, and then balance this with awesome single track cross country muni.
This is a good idea, and makes me think I want to get a good balance of trials, singletrack, uphill, and grand scale downhill trails. I’ve seen some mtb trials online in Utah that appear to have up to 25 miles of 90% downhill if done point to point. I’m looking for state by state recommendations on this type of trail.
Thanks. This is just the kind of exact info that I need to fill out particular states. It sure beats the “devining” I have to do from mtb trail websites. Since I’m inevitably going to piece together the best trails in each state, if available I’d appreciate even more info, in an order something like: 1. Name of Trail; 2. Length; 3. URL;
Excellent idea of yours to join me on the ride in your state! This will be awesome (especially as it is difficult to get a muni partner to go more than 10 miles – Exception being MuniSano with whom I did 50 miles and am planning some more epics…)
One slightly mental thing to do, that someone really should do, would be to do the route for this race. The winner did it in 15 days, the cut-off was 25 days. On a uni, if you could do 50 mile days, it’d take 50 days.
http://www.greatdividerace.com/
I think there are several points you have to be away from civilisation for a significant time though, which would mean carrying food.
But it’d be super cool if someone actually rode that route on a uni.
Joe
This looks totally cool! I definitely want to do this one, too, maybe as a N-S Muni Across America? 200k climbing may take a bit longer, especially if I’m carrying a pack with bivvy gear, but maybe its a good excuse to get the new KH dual gear hub…
Details for the Reno Tahoe area (where I live)…
http://www.greatbasinbicycles.com/Trail_Maps.htm has lots of great rides…
Two that I have done that are definately worth it: Flume Trail - 13+ miles with lots of options… Not the most gnarly technical stuff, but very beautiful. Also see http://www.flumetrail.com
Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride: This is actually in California, and it is one of the most gnarly technical awesome trails out there. Its about 12 miles or so depending on how you get up to the top…
The Tahoe Rim Trail has some very good areas too. About half of it is open to “b*kes” on even numbered days. http://www.tahoerimtrail.org/ has more information…
I have heard that Northstar is a great place to ride as well… It’s a ski resort, not a XC trail… So you have the option of taking the lift up and riding down… http://www.northstarattahoe.com for more info there.
If you look through the first link at Great Basin… you will see a lot of other trails available… I’ve only done a couple not already mentioned, and they are not as good… I am sure that there are great ones left in the dozens I haven’t ridden… 
California has many other great areas for Muni… so I don’t know if you would want to use up all 50 miles in Tahoe…
Keld
You really should count California as three states, and toss out a couple of the more boring ones. The Tahoe area has great riding (as noted above), and there are some awesome parks in the extended Bay Area, but the most seriously gnarly and rocky technical terrain is in Southern California.
You’ve got a point, but formatwise it sounds nice to do the “representative muni trails” in every state for serious flavor. I’ll bet there is a lot to be said for some of the seemingly boring states too (not to mention that I’ll be passing through on the way).
For instance, I always thought that Florida would be too flat for anything interesting, but it turns out there are great quarries with awesome technical rides.
I think CA probably deserves more miles. Eventually this could develop into a project to do a continuous muni ride, as my buddy Crashtest points out, so it is good to fill in the blanks as we go.
There was an recent article in Backpacker Magazine (I thik it’s August, but maybee July) on new 3-season sleeping bags that have highly waterproof and durrable shells. Eliminating the need for a bivy sack.
Edit: to lighten the load how about talking a b*ker into carrying some of your stuff. A woman did this riding accross the US, finishing about 8 months ago w/ her dad(gear hauler on a bike w/ front, rear paniers and F/R racks). She was on a Coker.